Aston Villa tie with Liverpool key to proving club belongs in top four, says Stiliyan Petrov

28 December 2009 01:22

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The ability to forget defeat and focus on the next game, rather than dwelling on opportunities missed, is an essential characteristic of successful sides, and not something that Aston Villa were always able to do last season. But Petrov is under no illusions that the Arsenal game must now be dismissed in favour of preparation for what could be one of the most important matches of their season.

The midfielder said: "What's key is how you bounce back from the set-back. We will lose more games from now until the end of the season, but it's how you react. We want to bounce back. We have been on a great run and we deserve to be where we are in this division. It didn't go for us against Arsenal but we're over it already because all our focus needs to be on Liverpool now.'

Related ArticlesAston Villa v Liverpool: match previewArsene Wenger may have to spend in JanuaryMartin O'Neill facing stern testArsenal 3 Aston Villa 0O'Neill guarded about top-four finishArsenal v Aston Villa: match preview"We know we have enough quality to bounce back. Big teams do that. They lose a game and they come roaring back. If you lose one, you have to try and win the next one. The lads will respond. That's our job. If we want to be respected and achieve something, we need to bounce back from this.

"It will be a great occasion and it will be a big game. But it doesn't matter if it's Liverpool, Arsenal, Hull - we just want to win games. We want performances and we want points. That's key. It's always disappointing when you lose a game of football and we were obviously frustrated after the Arsenal loss - but the lads are very positive.

"We are looking forward to the game. It's going to be hard because Liverpool are a good team who have been up there for many years. It's a tough one but we're looking forward to it."